The Government this week published a new strategy for independent living. It begins, ‘we want everyone – whether they receive state-funded support or fund support themselves – to have maximum control and power over the support services they receive and we will work with local authorities and key partners to help them deliver this. That seems important to me - without finding new ways to work with the self-funded as well as state-funded, it may be hard to lever new funds into the system.
In terms of identifying opportunity spaces for innovation, three headlines struck me imediately:
‘We will develop action and learning sites to demonstrate the redeployment of resources from professional assessment and care management to user-led support, advocacy and brokerage’
‘We will examine the case for investment in advocacy support in situations where disabled people are particularly at risk of losing choice and control’
‘The Office for Disability Issues (ODI) will investigate the case for investing in independent living for older disabled people in residential/nursing care or at risk of moving into care.’
What do you think of the strategy?
[…] Independent Living Strategy published- […]